The Inquisitr » reuters

Reuters, Politico sign distribution agreement

Duncan Riley — Tue, 16 Dec 2008 00:32:51 +0000

Reuters and upstart syndication service Politico have signed a distribution agreement that will see both share content across their networks.

Politico content, primarily US political stories will be available alongside Reuters content to Reuters clients.

The more interesting part of the deal sees Reuters content offered for free to Politico members in return for ad placement. Politico currently offers a market unique service that allows member newspapers and online outlets to republish a limited number of Politico articles in return for ad placement with shared revenue. The new deal with Reuters sees the number extend to 10 articles and/ or image per day from Politico and Reuters available for free in return for ad placement. Reuters and Politico will split their share of the ads with end users.

Despite its strong global presence, Reuters has always been an underdog in the US market vs AP, primarily due to the ownership of AP coming from the newspapers themselves. Reuters only has 14 distribution agreements in the US, and with Politico on board now extends that reach by 60.

(via NY Times)

AP tries to put itself between newspaper content swap deals

Duncan Riley — Tue, 30 Sep 2008 03:09:42 +0000

The Associated Press (AP) has announced AP Marketplace, a new platform that offers AP content and more to AP members.

Marshall Kirkpatrick at ReadWriteWeb covers the content management aspects of the offering, describing it as an RSS reader type service for newsrooms, and PaidContent claims it’s in response to new competitors such as Politico. Both suggestions may hold some level of truth, but both miss the key line and what this is really in response to:

the Marketplace is built into AP’s innovative AP Exchange browser. It allows editors to search for AP stories, syndicated content and, now, content contributed by members.

and more (emphasis is mine)

Sharing regionally relevant and topical news is an area of great interest for many newspapers in many states, and the AP Member Marketplace is the fastest and most efficient way to make it possible.

and more

AP Member Marketplace provides the means for expansive cooperation among newsrooms. Newspapers in Florida have been using it to exchange stories of local and regional interest, for example.

and

AP Member Marketplace within AP Exchange takes the concept of the news cooperative in a new direction and gives members a competitive advantage on news of local or regional relevance.

Now lets flash back to The Inquisitr, September 10

the New Jersey’s Star-Ledger has published a full edition without using anything from AP, instead running lots of local stories and content from the Washington Post, LA Times, McClatchy, the Glouceseter County Times and Sportsticker.

and

What we are seeing is newspapers willing to work with one and other collectively to reduce costs by cutting out the middleman. A small start perhaps, but if it’s embraced, and newspapers realize that other papers aren’t their main threat, declining readership and subsequently revenues are, it’s the start of something bigger, and AP and Reuters are about to take a serious hit.

AP wants to put itself between newspapers that story share at a time newspapers are looking to cut costs by cutting AP and Reuters. In effect, AP becomes the ultimate middleman offering the best range of local content previously wasn’t available through AP, but would have been available through direct content swapping deals. By both offering the content, and tying up newspapers from doing direct deals themselves, AP’s overall product becomesmore appealing when newspapers consider dropping AP. Smart move from a company I noted in the earlier article isn’t completely stupid and who would fight hard to maintain its business. The CMS is the simply the window dressing, and Politico a bit player in what AP is thinking.

Will wire services fall first as newspapers decline?

Duncan Riley — Wed, 10 Sep 2008 23:15:13 +0000

As print revenues rapidly fall, cost cutting must follow as newspapers struggle to stay alive. We’ve already seen cuts to traditional services such as foreign bureaus, where as once newspapers had reporters in foreign cities, today only the top papers have a local presence, and even then with a lesser presence that in the past (for example, allowing a reporter in London to cover all of Europe). That vacuum should be a boost to wire services such as AP and Reuters, who can fill the gaps left. And yet, as margins become tighter, the concept of a middle-man offering syndicated news is under threat.

Jeff Jarvis notes today that the New Jersey’s Star-Ledger has published a full edition without using anything from AP, instead running lots of local stories and content from the Washington Post, LA Times, McClatchy, the Glouceseter County Times and Sportsticker. Jarvis notes that the issue isn’t that AP isn’t providing a great service, the issue is cost, with small papers like the Cleveland Plain Dealer having to pay $1 million a year for the right to publish AP stories.

Jarvis suggests that what we are seeing is the start of reverse syndication, where newspapers will enter into revenue sharing deals based on traffic pushed to their sites, bypassing the need for a wire service.

It’s an interesting idea, and you can read Jarvis’ full explanation in this post. It is possible that one day a model some what like what Jarvis is suggesting will come to the fore, but I don’t believe we are anywhere close just yet. The New Jersey’s Star-Ledger isn’t pushing people to other sites, it is taking content from other papers for its print edition. The relationship is still content based, presumably with a financial exchange involved, but one that is significantly less than access fees for AP.

What we are seeing is newspapers willing to work with one and other collectively to reduce costs by cutting out the middleman. A small start perhaps, but if it’s embraced, and newspapers realize that other papers aren’t their main threat, declining readership and subsequently revenues are, it’s the start of something bigger, and AP and Reuters are about to take a serious hit.

It would be wrong to presume though that AP is completely stupid. PaidContent reports that AP is to begin sharing advertising and syndication revenue with more of its subscribers, through an extension of a program that turns its clients in to online sales affiliates. The short version: you run an AP story, you include an ad, and you share in the revenue. This is one example I found, complete with what I presume is the AP resource box in the footer. Not exactly inspiring, but it’s start. If AP opens the program up further, and drops the need to subscribe to play, things start to get interesting as demand for AP content will grow at a time newspaper users drop. Reuters and AP already attract a large amount of traffic to their own sites, imagine that this content goes out with ads, driving new revenue streams. It’s not impossible that both could end up standing alone as online news powerhouses that don’t rely on traditional syndication deals.